


The Aftermath

by 0nevermindthen3



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Avengers (TV)
Genre: F/M, How Do I Tag, I Don't Even Know, M/M, Magic, Multi, Natasha Is a Good Bro, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Snap reversed, Soul Stone (Marvel), Soulmates kinda, Thanos is a bitch, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, avengers annihilation because endgame sounds lame, avengers getting their baes back, everyone is weeping, hawkeye is ronin, kaecilius is basically hannibal with swarovsky eye shadow, steve is a sad johnny bravo
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-15
Updated: 2018-12-18
Packaged: 2019-09-18 13:24:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16995822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/0nevermindthen3/pseuds/0nevermindthen3
Summary: —“We are gonna bring him back Steve, everyone is”— says Natasha—“I don´t know if i can live without him this time Natasha, I just got him back for good, and he was so happy here without caring about being arrested or worse and sam”— he breaks, “i don’t know what im gonna do if we don’t get them back”AU: The snap made everyone´s soulmate disappear





	1. 3 months later

**Author's Note:**

> "I believe that everyone in the world.  
> has a poem  
> that is their soulmate"
> 
> Nayyirah Waaheed

**Wakanda**

 

—“In a way Thanos did kill half of our universe, he took away half of our souls” —says Steve stumped onto the pasture of Wakanda fidgeting with the end of a leaf.

 

The green is so abundant and bright that one wouldn’t think something terrible had happened at all, everything still looking so beautiful, she wonders if animals could feel the snap, could they? she remembers the air being so heavy that day, the pain so stark, it was unimaginable to even consider _fuck, half of everything that_ _exists is gone._

 

What did the birds thought when they were found alone, were they disquiet like them? could they mourn if they don’t know what happened?

 

—“We are gonna bring him back Steve, everyone is”— says Natasha

 

—“I don´t know if i can live without him this time Natasha, I just got him back for good, and he was so happy here without caring about being arrested or worse and Sam”— he breaks, “i don’t know what im gonna do if we don’t get them back”

 

—“listen to me, this is going to work”, —she hopes it works, there isn’t any other way, accept what happened is inconceivable

 

—“we are the only people who can reverse this, i know that Clint is alive and im gonna bring him back”

 

—he stops fidgeting, and looks at her intently ,—“how do you know he is alive?”

 

—“Oh, i know he is” Natasha replies intently, —“we are gonna need all the help we can get this time”,— she doesn’t say she would have felt it if he was gone, there is some secrets she is not ready to give up yet, she wondered how Steve felt having half of his soul gone, something tugs at her stomach uncomfortable.

 

 

* * *

 

**Tokyo**

 

The rain pours heavily, Japan is more quiet than the other times she visited, when she had lived other lives, her shoes make no sound into the pavement and she

slides into the dangerous parts of Tokyo, this is what she knows how to do, what she was trained to do, and follows his trail.

 

_Fear is world away from touching her_ she thinks absently, she had grown up from worse places after all.

 

_hide Natashenka says the American, she had seen to much, has done too much to feel fear any longer, as he kills every single technician to set her free_

_da, soldat_

 

 

she hides behind a wall, her umbrella is firmly grasped in her hand and listens.

 

>he appeared out of nowhere with a sword and killed everyone< he is panting, _scared_ she notes

 

>are you sure?<

 

> i was there< and then >they call him Ronin<

 

>is he yakuza, Akare?<

 

>we are not sure<

 

 

* * *

 

_what would you call yourself as a vigilante?_

_vigilante Tasha? I´m not Matt Murdock_

_alright i give up, Ronin sounds like a cool vigilante name_

_thats even worse than Daredevil_

_see? now you are being hurtful_

 

Her blond hair catches the light more easily now, but her dark clothes conceal her just fine, her old contact had been right then, Barton is inJapan, she hopes his trail isn’t too cold by now.

 

—“he might not recognize you at first”,Kostyam had said after a long pause, until now she had never questioned if it came of the other way around ,what if she didn’t recognize him?

 

—“hell even i didn’t i guess that´s the charm of the spy huh?” kostyam lighted up a smoke, and breaths out in a lazy cloud

 

—“he knows me kostya” ~~_better than anyone_~~ , he had always known that she hated the smell of smoke

 

—“i always thought that when everyone turned to dust one of you would have gone too”

 

—“he is not mine to keep ,what do you have on him?”

 

—“you are nobody’s маленькая паук you always forget , and i know about him because he asked me to make him an sword with old Japanese shit written on it, that dude really likes old weaponry ,anyway he was with his shadow”

 

That catches her attention

 

—“who is the shadow kostyam?” she says getting closer to him

 

—“i would tell you Natalia, but i didn’t see his face”— and then he breaths out  the smoke  at her face and smiles "one goes the other follows, the dutiful duo”

 


	2. Ronin

**Ronin** she thinks as she watches him work effortlessly with a sword as he would with his trademark bow

 

He cleans the blood of his blade in his arm, taking off his mask, and feels someone looking at him, there is only one person who can sneak upon him, so he turns already knowing, his eyes sharp and focused on a weary face.

 

—“so you weren’t my soulmate after all” ,is all what he says and Natasha keep staring at him, he looks different, he looks like _her from before_ she thinks

 

_i got red in my ledger and i would like to wipe it out_

_i can help you, if trust me, do you trust me?_

_yes, i do_

 

—“she is dead— he pauses— Laura, the kids, everyone … i don’t "—he makes an aborted gesture with his hand and then stashes his sword

 

—“clint”—she says,— feeling hesitant for first time in a while, her umbrellatapping the rhythm of the rain

 

—“that´s not who i am anymore”— his eyes look like after the battle of new York.

 

_do you know whats like to feel unmade?_

_you know that i do_

 

—“we need you”

 

he laughs bitterly, —“you need cap, you need tony, you don’t need me, buddy with the greasy hair and metal arm, hell you might even need him”, he looks up at the rain — “you don´t need me”

—“don´t you see? ,I´m busy” he remarks to the dead bodies of the yakuza laying around him

 

—“so what now?killing people is not gonna help” Natasha gets closer to him, until he is in front of her

 

He looks tired, defeated in a way thats not him, she feels his wariness down toning as she comes closer

 

—“this is what life means for me now Tasha, everyone is dead .. I thought that perhaps i could have a life outside what shield was, what the avengers were-“

“but i guess i was wrong, everything went to shit anyways, I saw Nathaniel turn to dust from my hands and i knew you guys were into some shit and then i called out for the kids, forLaura but there was no one else, i though all of you were dead”

 

— “most of us are” Natasha replies darkly

 

—“ i dont give a shit anymore Tasha”

 

— “so what are you planning then, going vigilante all whats left of your life”

 

—“ if it necessary”, then softy adds—“i wanna bring them back"

 

—“That´s why I´m here , we need you Scott lang has a plan to undo what Thanos did, it´s gonna work”

 

—“I´m not talking about Scott,Natasha” “i work for a guy”

 

Natasha waits for him to elaborate

 

Clint looks around briefly —“lets go to my place”, he doesn’tsay its not safe here, Natasha knows, both of them could take an army together, they had, but thats not why she is here

 

—“alright”,she concedes and blends into the shadows following his lead, the umbrella long forgotten.


	3. Steve

 

The apartment is surprisingly clean and austere, two wide door windows, all the walls painted a light brown and one large white couch with floral designs

 

—“its not mine”— Clint says when he catches her looking at the painting of samurais in the walls

 

—“well ,that explains it”—she deadpans and he huffs

 

—who is left alive then? he flops down into the couch

 

that somber the mood somehow

 

—tony ,the spider kid and doctor strange are missing, we thought thor was dead until he arrived in wakanda to save our asses

 

—but it wasn’t enough

 

—“no it wasn’t, Thanos managed to snap his fingers at the end, and what happened next-”

 

she breaths out— “we were like flies to him”, she remembers like if nothing could touch him, they were overpowered, and they lost everything.

 

Clint stares at her cataloging the facts, his ronin gear still in place

 

—“we are the only ones left of the team, steve, bruce, thor and you and me"

 

He sits up , droppinghis jacket on the floor and searches for a clean tshirt in a bag besides the couch, then changes into it and closes the windows curtains

 

—“everyone lost their soulmates” he hears Natasha say.

 

—“at least i didn’t lost you —he says looking back at her

 

—“ for once i can thanks the universe that you weren’t my soulmate tasha”—and natasha does smiles then, a short little sad little thing tugging her lips

 

—let me help you— she says like she is not expecting objection

 

_fair enough_ he thinks, and she says carefully—“ i will let steve know”

 

* * *

 

Steve, he doesn’t know how to feel, he feels like he did in the war but this is worse, worse than when sometimes things just not went according to the plan, when people died. That first time the comandossaw those awful camps and he couldn’t stop throwing up, sick for days and Bucky would be there with him calming him like he did back in Brooklyn when he had just been a kid with his body aching all over,hallucinating in the heat of the fever, only his quiet chanting calming him.

 

He thinks he should have died, he is numb all over he doesn’t dare to think if the plan doesn’t follow though, he knows what he is going to do, this feels like this is his last straw, he would just let himself die , waiting for death in the place where he disappeared, laying until his Übermensch body would let him, he wonders if Natasha knows, if he is just that transparent, he worries he might just tell her.

 

_—i will rather die Bucky, there is no without you_

_—“don´t say that”— he says and god he is fuming furious, —“i didn’t take care of you all this years for this, you live rogers you live, promise me fuck tell me right now i swear if sara…”—his hands are pressing painfully in his shoulders, trembling_

_—“please steve, don’t do that for me, you don’t have to”_

 

_im sorry, im so sorry i cant he thinks_

_and then wishing for his forgiveness, im sorry but this is the only way before he plummets into the ocean, before we meet again_

 

he jumps at the sound of his phone ringing

—“shit”— he blurts out , the ringing getting more insistent interrupting his thoughts, he calms down and lets the ring beat one more time before answering

 

—“Natasha” —he says and he is impatient ,he goes out of the room ,goes outside to feel the wind on his face _god anything_

 

\--“I found him”—, her husky voice answers,—“ steve he is not in good shape”—she whispers

 

—“neither we are” —he says back, feels her take a deep breath and then—“clint has a plan to undo the snap and im going to help him”

 

—“Natasha”— he says frustrated —“this is not what we planned”

 

—i dont have much time”and then he can hear an explosion—“shit” she says suddenly

 

—“natasha” —he calls out urgently

 

—“pull yourself together rogers, this might be the best way, call you when i have more news” —“ fuck” he hears barton yell

 

—“fuck”— he says in retaliation when the call disconnects

 

—“did i just heard captain america swear?” asks scott in awe

 

—“men can you leave me in peace? I´m examining the device —says rocket inside the van— where did you get this piece of junk anyway

 


	4. Tasha

Cap is devastated —says natasha, now they are both seated next to each other just thinking , there is not much on the apartment apart from them and the couch, natasha with her phone on one hand just trying to hold them both like he did once.

 

—his buddy is gone then, for real — he says andtries to cover his face with his hands, trying to conceal his grimace without luck.

 

—“sam is too” -she adds and there is silence, it stretches before he blurts out.

 

—“there is some food in the cupboard if you want some, not much pizza in this part of the town though”

 

—“hey” she says seeing everything, and takes his hand into her own.

 

_you don’t have to do this aloneits unspoken but understood_

 

—“i know”— he saysstaring at her and she lets go of him

 

* * *

 

 

—“the guy i work for , his name is kaecilius, he is not exactly alive, but thats not the weirdest shit we ever seen”—he pauses thinking—

“doctor strange kept him in a loop in another universe <dark dimension> —he makes air quotations—“so we could be safe from his influences, i pulled two and two together , doctor strange is probably dead ,his magic prison only worked if he were alive in any case, i dont know”

 

—“so he returned and contacted you, how did you know kaecilius?”

 

—“i don´t , i stumbled upon him arriving here  but  before he could touch me i had an arrow in his throat, but he didn’t die exactly”

 

 

_—i don´t remember missing —and he doesn’t realize he says this out loud, he is functional at most, barely put together._

_—“you didn’t”— said the curt reply, “ remarkable boy”— the men says and like the  creepiest son-of-a-bitch grabs the end of the arrow and tugs it out without bleeding ,making a disgusted face for a short second while examining the sharp edge._

_—“I´m not corporeal yet as you can see, not entirely” —and now clint could see him better, his eyes were outlined and cracked by dark violet of what looked like incrustations of crystals, a ponytail in his silver hair—“i might have a mission that could fullfill what we are both desperate for”_

_but he is so angry, so angry that can barely think—“and what is that”_

_—“bring them back” he says and gives him the arrow back , and clint doesn’t hesitate._

 

 

—“he doesn’t want anything from Thanos, he want to undo what he did he wants someone’s back just like we do”

 

—“whats his price ?”

 

—“that i help him find a stone”

 

—"Thanos got all the infinity stones Clint”

 

—“he told me they are others , multiple universes, multiple stones, we might even need that emo sonofabitch” _i hope it doesn’t come to that he doesn’t say._

 

—loki

 

—yes

 

—“but they are other ways, japan has a secret pathway to the twin stones, i heard rumors about them that´s why i came here first, and then kaecilius told me these rumors were true”

 

—“thats why you are killing yakuza?”

 

—“yakuza are wise, they know the way in , im just getting information”

 

* * *

 

 

“im calling him”— says natasha and disappears when he goes to make some food, but he can hear her sound and clear. Of course she would look for him ,he feels like an idiot what did he expected?

they know each other, feel each other even , her pulse strong behind his veins making him think at least im not alone, and his home everyday reminding him what he no longer had, and he could not just let it be that way

 

—“clint has a plan to undo the snap and im going to help him” he hears natasha say to steve.

 

Cap he thinks, it felt strange to think of him like just Steve.

He had asked for his help getting him out of retirement and then he had gotten them arrested trying to save barnes and undo what zemo did, he broke them out of the raft, making them wanting criminals.

 

And then Clint had been arrested just like scott lang when they were in us soil again, because of cap , who had fought so much for barnes and lost him all the same.

 

_“At the end sacrifice means nothing”—_ loki said to him, whispered in his mind before taking over, before the struggle became too much and he could only observe as his body wasn’t longer his, he didn’t believe in it, not even in that moment, but now it was easy to fall into that old struggle, into that catchphrase.

 

But he wasn’t alone then and he isn’t now, _loki was wrong he thinks ,_ sacrifice had to meant something natasha did save him in the end, and steve, he had gave him a chance when the team didn’t believe in him, when they were justa time bomb and they were at each others throats, for all his bullheaded beliefs steve did want to make things right at the end.

 

_"its the right thing to do"_ , he would say once to him and offer no other explanation, he didn’t need to.

 

 

there isa pause, she listens and frownher eyebrows

 

—“i dont have much time-“  and then the windows are shot down

 

—“shit”  —she says, as he launches himself to the ground

—“pull yourself together rogers, this might be the best way, call you when i have more news” he hears her, he moves to see from the kitchen

 

—Fuck —he yells when a bullet passes besides his face burning, _they found him then_

 

—“we gotta move” he struggles

 

—“position”— he calls out, gaining more control

 

—“windows i can count two hostiles, maybe more on the ground” replies natasha

 

he grabs the knifes from the table and launch them at the window with dead accuracy, two black figures go down.

 

Natasha draws a gun from her and shots four times, her long coat shadowing her.

 

—“two down” she calls out

 

—“how many more” 

 

—“maybe four” she grits when more bullets fly close to them

 

 

>move move, they are still inside< they hear them talking in japanese

 

Natasha signs to clint >>they can hear us<<

 

>> throw me the blade, i follow<< clint signs

 

>>at three << natasha signs back

 

 

Clint waits until three and launches himself to catch the blade tasha toses at him and then she catapults herself  over the balcony firing and breaking her fall crushing one of the black figures taking cover

 

>>look for ronin<< a figure in black says, under a black mask

 

_they all look the same_ clint thinks as he draws his blade close and runs at the ruined used-to-be-window to jump  , slashes other two figures in black while at the balcony and tasha shots the ones approaching from ground, he breaks the neck of one of them with his legs and slices another.

 

—“nice move” natasha says

 

—“i had a good teacher”— he grins

 

And as soon its over,  his new tshirt is covered in blood while tasha looks around

 

—“we need to move, do you have another safe house?”

 

—“one i will rather not use, but okay let me suit back up”

 

he changes clothes again, stashes some weapons in a bag pack and they go.

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

He is wearing his ronin jacket and natasha her long wool coat, linking their arms as they walk in a steady motion while he looks up at the rooftops, and natasha keeps a light chat in japanese so he can relax

 

they go to dinner close to the safe house, unnoticed even while bruised and weary eyed, the dinner is poorly lighted ,shadows cover half of the street and the guys running the dinner are cracking jokes while they cook. Its not a bad place.

 

—“i didn´t know you knew other food other than pizza”

 

—“a guy gotta eat, not much pizza in this part of town”

 

they sit at the far end, wood tables with red chopstick on top and they both have their order, _warm food for cold fingers_ natasha used to say to him at first, when they didn’t know each other that much and she snapped at him at russian long enough that he ended up learning the words like a passive aggressive mantra.

 

A few minutes later and clint finds himself lazily spooning his miso soup.

 

—“they figured out this safe house, i knew i had been too much time there”

 

—“we need to coordinate better, you aren’t alone in this clint we are a team” she points at him with her wooden spoon

 

—“i know, us against the world  yeah like old times”

 

—“like old times”

 

—“how can you be sure we can trust the guy strange didn’t”

 

—“oh i have a hunch about him he says between spoons of miso, he desperately wants someone back even more than to be corporeal again, i guess i can relate” He thinks of his family then briefly, their faces passing in quick succession before he has a way to stop it.

 

—that would do it”

 

—“and he knows magical artifacts” he tells her, and she smiles.

 

—“feels nice to be partners again ,yastrev”

 

—“yeah”-he says, his voice catching a bit at the old nickname

**Author's Note:**

> your comments are cookies for me :3  
> any gramatical mistake let me know  
> or suggestions to the fic


End file.
